Supernova is a 2000 science fiction horror film written by David C. Wilson, William Malone and Daniel Chuba and directed by Walter Hill, credited as "Thomas Lee.

"[3] "Thomas Lee" was chosen as a directorial pseudonym for release in lieu of Alan Smithee, as the latter had become too well known as a badge of a film being disowned by its makers.

It was originally developed in 1988 by Malone as "Dead Star," with paintings by H. R. Giger and a plot that had been called "Hellraiser in outer space."

Jack Sholder was hired for substantial uncredited reshoots, and Francis Ford Coppola was brought in for editing purposes.

The cast features James Spader, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Lou Diamond Phillips, Peter Facinelli, Robin Tunney, and Wilson Cruz.

The film was shot by cinematographer Lloyd Ahern II and scored by composers David C. Williams and Burkhard Dallwitz.

Supernova chronicles the search-and-rescue patrol of the medical ship Nightingale 229 in deep space in the early 22nd century and its six-member crew, which includes captain and pilot A.J.

Aboard their vessel, they receive an emergency distress signal coming from an ice mining operation on the moon Titan 37, more than 3,000 light-years away.

With only an 11-minute window for escape, the surviving crew soon find themselves in danger from the disturbing young man they rescue, and the mysterious alien artifact he has smuggled aboard.

It is ultimately discovered that the young man who called for rescue is actually Karl Larson, an old former lover of Kaela (it is implied that he was abusive).

[1] MGM bought the project and a series of writers were put on the script, including David Campbell Wilson, Daniel Chuba, Cathy Rabin and Thomas Wheeler.

[1] Australian Geoffrey Wright was originally attached to direct but left the project two months before principal photography was to begin due to "creative differences."

[5] Hill says he "was interested in doing a science fiction thing"; he thought the script "had fixable problems" and he wanted to work with James Spader.

Under such a deal, the special effects would be delivered below market rates, since Digital, as a partial owner of some MGM films, would have an incentive to keep costs down.

A weightless sex scene between Robin Tunney and Peter Facinelli was shot in seats mounted on a rotating pole that was digitally removed in post-production.

[5] After principal photography was finished in July 1998, Hill spent 24 weeks editing his director's cut of the film, which still did not have all the special effects scenes added into it.

Hill told them that the screening would be a complete disaster because the film was still not finished and because he wanted to shoot some more footage.

After test screenings went badly MGM hired another director, Jack Sholder, to re-edit Hill's footage and do some re-shoots to try to save the film.

Sholder deleted a lot of the scenes from Hill's version, including many scenes of character development, added the scene where James Spader's character is piloting the ship to safety after they jump into the supernova high-gravity field (originally the auto-pilot saved the ship from the crash but Sholder wanted to give Spader's character something more to do), added some scenes with more focus on humor, changed the original voice of the ship's computer Sweetie and added a new one which had "more emotion", removed all the dialogue from another computer called George who was on Titan and who gave Nick some information about the mining colony, removed the original rocklike/electronic score by Burkhard Dallwitz, and added a new one by David C. Williams.

This work included digitally placing Bassett's and Spader's faces on the bodies of (a computer-tinted) Tunney and Facinelli so that their characters could have a love scene.

"I hope that my experience in the film industry has helped improve the picture and rectified some of the problems that losing a director caused," said Coppola.

[1] The theatrical trailer of the film, featuring songs "Fly" by Sugar Ray and "Mama Told Me Not To Come" by Three Dog Night, shows many alternate takes of some scenes, extended versions of some others, parts of a few deleted scenes, including the one where Nick finds the real Troy on the Titan moon turned into a fetus and Troy begging Nick to help him, and a couple of shots of the original ending where Karl is killed by a dimensional jump.

These scenes are: Supernova opened on January 14, 2000 in 2,280 theaters, during the Martin Luther King weekend, alongside Next Friday and the wide releases of Girl, Interrupted and The Hurricane.

"[17] The New York Times reviewer Lawrence Van Gelder called it "light on originality and low on suspense though high on design and special effects.